Chinese Laborer Found Hanging Near Briggs’ Ranch

On March 4, 1881, a Chinese laborer was found hanging from a tree near Briggs’ ranch outside Davisville, California. The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that there were “no particulars as to the cause." The Napa County Recorder later said that a coroner’s jury found death by strangulation but could not determine whether “the hanging was done by himself or others.” The case remains an ambiguous but suspicious hanging death.